Hello, James. Welcome!<P>As for the World Congress, Peggy's daughter is going as Joe Lanteri's assistant. You may want to read this thread:<P> <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000041.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000041.html</A> <P><BR>Were you planning to attend, James?

Thanks for the welcome Azlan. Yes I am attending. I am presenting a piece of choreography for the Leo's Choreography Competition. <P>I will give you more on my views after the first week of August.<P>About the thread discussing jazz dance's seriousness as an art... That is a loaded topic that is discussed quite commonly. Personally, I consider myself a modern choreographer with strong ties to jazz in my past jobs (I worked in the entertainment side of the field for my first few years). <P>Even within the jazz dance community itself it is split between the jazz as an entertainment form and jazz as an art form. With the popularity of commercial competitions - the entertainment form gets the most hype. Add in the visibility of music videos and commercials and young dance students come to look at jazz dance as a sanitized form of hip hop only. They are not exposed to the artistic forms.<P>Forerunners in the artistic jazz dance community are Billy Seigenfeld and his Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Danny Buraczeski and his company, Bob Boross (who runs an impressive site on the internet devoted to artistic jazz dance), and Joe Orlando at SMU - just to name a few.<P>Unfortunately, as we all know, concert dance forms suffer from poor visibility compared to commercial dance forms.<P>Here is where the topic gets trickier and I would like to hear some feedback...Jazz dance is at its roots a popular dance form. This is similar to folk dance and character dance. What do you see as the limits and difficulties of a folk dance form or character dance form being approached as an entirely artistic dance form?<P>I will give my impression to get the ball rolling. As someone who choreographs in both the modern idiom and jazz idiom - it is in the established vocabulary that I find limits. I prefer to aim for original movement at all times. Resorting to named steps (lay out, pas de bourre, stag leap, pirouette) seems to bring weak points in the choreography. But how is this any different from classical ballet choreography which works within a set vocabulary?<P>I'm not making much sense - just rambling on here - but if anyone has an inkling of what I am getting at and would like to explain it to me please do!!<P>Muddled,<BR>James<P>------------------<BR>My Home Page: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/james+robey/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.geocities.com/james+robey/<BR></A> Got Jazz!?: <A HREF="http://www.danceart.com/gotjazz/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.danceart.com/gotjazz/</A> Choreography Talk: <A HREF="http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ChoreographyTalk" TARGET=_blank>http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ChoreographyTalk<BR></A> Manhattan Motion: <A HREF="http://www.manhattanmotion.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.manhattanmotion.com/</A> <BR>

Part of the problem is these aren't just named steps, they're ballet steps. Not that one vein of dance truly and absolutely lays claim to an of the myriad of human shapes and movements, but if ballet hasn't been codified, what has? I'm not sure how we can expect to construct a jazz dance with ballet steps. Maybe kinda like building a log cabin out of PVC piping?<P>Um, I'll just kinda roll with it for a minute here...<P>There's so much more to a step than the outline a body makes in space. A pas de bourre at ABT is likely to be different than a pas de bourre a la Jeannie Hill (Jump Rhythm Jazz Project) - and much of that is the different rhythmic dynamic in jazz dance. <P>It's not so much named steps, it's the canned, over-processed combinations that get me. Something that looks like a compulsory in a dance team competition - what was so aptly called a "sanitized form of hip hop" - is just tiresome.<P>Now, I've also been bored out of my mind by classic, music-based, or artistic jazz too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally blind and deaf.(I'll get back to that deafness in a minute) There've been improvisations I could have lived without seeing (or doing, for that matter), I've done dance after dance with the same predictable structure, and I've performed with musicians who couldn't have cared less if we were there or not.<P>Which does bring me back to that deaf thing, which is basically that jazz dance doesn't simply have a movement vocabulary - there is a whole musical understanding which should go with it. With this musical understanding and involvement of improvisation and live musicians, tremendous, fresh, original movement can happen.<P>Ach - I could probably go one, but I'd likely wind up repeating myself or going off on some awful tangent. <BR>This is a nice ball, let's kick it around.<P>Hm - just came back to add some spaces to make this easier to read. - see you! P.<P>[This message has been edited by Prisanh (edited July 14, 2000).]<P>Oh, ok, I guess I wasn't quite done yet...<p>[This message has been edited by Prisanh (edited July 14, 2000).]

James-interesting question about jazz as an art form. I have been on all sides of the fence on this one....I am trained as a modern and ballet dancer. But have a little jazz background, and have judged at dance (commercial) competitions. Part of the issue to me, is the question as well of MUSIC. Choreogrpahers musical choices are quite telling and really set the tone, can often make or break a piece. Also, how they use the music they choose-sterotypically, ho-hum, against the music, what? Lighting,,,costume, all this has an influence. Also, jazz is a very senusal art form, undeniably. HOw a choreographer presents this is also telling...Fosse was very blatant and erotic about it....Hubbard Street sometimes goes more in the direction of modern dance and sometimes more "lyrical" and not so sensual...lots of choices...then there's classical jazz....like a Luigi, who goes in the direction of beautiful line and using the body in an anatomically correct, highly trained way...lots of choices in jazz!

At a Dance Festival, Jazzy Is as Jazzy Doesby ERIKA KINETZ for the New York Times

The congress took an inclusive view of what qualifies as jazz dance, offering straight African dance and tap pieces, as well as choreography by Jerome Robbins, Mia Michaels - who choreographed Celine Dion's show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and is now working on Fox's new "So You Think You Can Dance?" reality show - and work by companies like Philadanco and Battleworks Dance Company that identify themselves as "modern" or "contemporary."

Wide world of jazz kicks up its heels at world festby LUCIA MAURO, special to the Chicago Tribune

Regardless of their desire to experiment, the artists haven't lost touch with jazz's inherent entertainment value. Most revelatory was the fact that each company fused the core of rhythm-based jazz dance with the theatrical, percussive, abstract and raw, recognizable gestures of everyday life. Despite the programming of works that ran on too long, with some teetering dangerously close to drowsy monotony, some groundbreaking moments emerged.

All those jazz dancers add up to dazzling showby HEDI WEISS for the Chicago Sun-Times

Another absolutely bravura turn came courtesy of solo dancer George Smallwood, a member of choreographer Robert Battle's New York-based Battleworks. In a piece called "Takademe," set to the spectacular vocal stylings of Sheila Chandra (who puts a brilliant pop spin on the complex, percussive structures of East Indian music), Smallwood suggested a many-armed god as he bobbed his head and swiveled his torso with the rapid-fire, highly articulated gestures of the "mudra" school.

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